


In The Cards

by rosymamacita



Series: Here We Are Now Entertain Us [3]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: 90s AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bar, F/M, Halloween, Pining, tarot reading, true north
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 10:57:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9381452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosymamacita/pseuds/rosymamacita
Summary: Octavia has somehow convinced Clarke to dress up as a fortune teller and read cards at her Halloween Charity Festival. It's a terrible idea. She's not even a real tarot card reader.But Bellamy, her ridiculous crush, is her first client, and if she sees it in the cards, she's got to say it, right?





	

Clarke Griffin really couldn’t believe she’d agreed to this. She walked into The Woods, their favorite dive bar, but today, she was dressed as a fortune teller, and she was totally nervous. She wore multiple layers of flowing skirts, a velvet corset that pushed up her already significant cleavage under a gauzy, low cut blouse, and yards of beads that kept getting caught between her boobs.

Octavia Blake squealed and ran up to her to give her a big hug. She was dressed as Cleopatra and must have gotten her costume at a store. It was adorable and she, of course was fitting as the most beautiful empress on the planet. Octavia loved Halloween. That was why she’d set up this charity festival at the bar she worked at. The owner, Lincoln, loved her, and would give her anything, which made it a given that she’d get her way.

So Halloween festival for charity it was. Clarke, however, was a harder sell, and Octavia worked on her for much of the summer, once she found out that Clarke had had gotten a little obsessed with reading tarot, finally plying her with tequila to get her to agree. Now, Clarke was on the hook for a charity booth. 

“I LOVE it,” Octavia said, holding her at arms length and ogling Clarke up and down in the outfit that she had picked out for her. “I knew you’d be this hot. Those things are WEAPONIZED.” Her eyebrows waggled up and down as she looked at the boobs. 

“Yeah, well, you know. Gotta play to the masses,” she said even though her heart wasn’t in it. “Are you sure I should do this?”

“Absolutely, it’s for charity.”

“But I’m not actually a tarot reader. I took a class because I thought I could use the symbolism in my art. I’m a total amateur.”

Octavia chuckled. “Oh you don’t have to be a real tarot reader. It’s for fun. Besides, with those knockers no one is going to care if you predict their violent death by apocalypse. Just lean forward and shimmy and they’ll be throwing money at you hand over fist, right Bell?” Octavia turned to her brother, sitting there at a quiet booth, reading a paperback and drinking a pint of beer. 

Bellamy Blake looked up over the rim of his glasses and quirked his eyebrow. “Stop objectifying her, O,” he said and returned to his book. Clarke caught the muscle jumping in his jaw.

“It’s for charity, Bell, stop being such a stick in the mud.”

Raven came over then, wearing a silver leather jacket and tight black jeans under her leg brace, along with ridiculous silver eye makeup and winged liner.

“What are you supposed to be?”

Raven put on a pointed hat and grinned, “The Tin Man,” she said and slid into the booth. “Obviously,” she said and grinned. She set a pitcher and a couple of glasses down on the table. “I got this round,” she said.

There was room on Bellamy’s side of the bench, but she really couldn’t sit that close to him right now. She was already nervous enough for this fake tarot reading that Octavia had finally coerced her into her into when she was drunk and she was too stubborn and proud to back out of now that she was sober and remembering how she wasn’t a tarot reader. Clarke shoved Raven over and sat down next to her, getting a barely restrained eye roll from Raven, who knew exactly why she wasn’t sitting next to her stupid crush. Clarke pinched Raven’s thigh. The eye roll lost it’s restraint and got a scoff thrown in for good measure. 

This was not what she needed when she was about to fake her way through sitting with a bunch of strangers and telling them the future. She couldn’t read the future. She sighed heavily and poured herself a drink. Maybe beer would loosen her up.

“You’ll be fine,” Bellamy said, putting down his book, finally. Still wearing those glasses though. Her heart went pitter pat. He couldn’t possibly know how she loved him in his glasses. “Everyone knows that it’s all for fun. You’re insightful. I bet you could pick up enough detail just from having your clients sit down across from you to tell them all sorts of things about who they are and what they want. Use your intuition.”

Clarke cocked her head at Bellamy. “How’d you know that was what was going through my head?”

“I’m insightful too,” he said, and smirked at her before taking a sip of his own pint.

“And I’m a fraud,” she said. And let her head fall to the table with a thunk. Raven laughed. 

“Ouch,” Bellamy said, but she could hear the humor in his voice. “Octavia says you’re really good.”

“She is,” Raven agreed from next to her, poking her in the side. “She read Octavia’s and my tarot cards when we were at the beach. It was kind of creepy how accurate it was.”

“You don’t know it was accurate. It was only a few months ago. There hasn’t been enough time for any of it to come true.”

“Whatever,” Raven said. “Come true or not, it was insightful, just like Bellamy said. And you promised Octavia you’d do this for two hours. It’s for charity. So now you’ve got to do your job.”

Clarke glared at her with her face still on the table. “I was drunk on margaritas.”

“Then maybe you should get drunk on margaritas again.” 

Clarke narrowed her eyes at Raven. Who cocked an eyebrow at her, like a dare. She’d also made confessions while drunk on margaritas, about being in love with a guy who was clearly too cool and intellectual and mature for her, and treated her like a little sister who needed to be taken care of. 

“Hey,” he said, and laid his fingers on her outstretched hand. She sat up suddenly and blinked at him. “How much time do you have before you’re scheduled to start reading for the charity?”

Clarke didn’t want to lift her wrist to look at her watch because then he might stop touching her hand. “I dunno. Fifteen minutes or so?”

“Good. You doing full readings for them?”

She shook her head. “Three cards. Past, present, and future. Five bucks. Two more dollars for each additional card. The point is to get them in, give their money to charity and get them out.” 

“Very mercenary.” He smirked at her and she felt her knees go weak. He didn’t know how that look made her turn to jelly. He couldn’t possibly know. If he did, he wouldn’t point it at her all the time.

“It’s for charity.”

He huffed a laugh and looked down at the table. Or was it at his fingers still resting on the back of her hand? He looked back up at her before she could tell. “You want to practice with me to get your nerves out?”

“What?” She looked at him alarmed. Then over at Raven. Alarmed. 

“Relax, Clarke,” Raven said. “I think you’d better get your jitters out on him. You look like you’re facing a horde of barbarians trying to kill everyone you know. Jeez. Let me out.” She shoved at her to slide out of the booth, then grabbed her beer and got up. “Practice on him. Chill out. No one’s going to watch. I’m going to talk to Octavia and Lincoln.” And with that, she turned on her heel and walked away. She didn’t even have the decency to stay and see the death glare Clarke sent her. 

But then Bellamy was taking her hand and she just about forgot about the defector, Raven. She turned back to him. He nodded at the seat. “Come on. Give it a test run. Just quick. You’ll remember it’s no big deal.”

She nodded and he dropped her hand. She was a little sad about that. She wanted him to do it again. She sat down and took out the little silk wrapped bundle of cards. She looked at him suspiciously.

She stuck her hand out on the table and waggled her fingers.

“What?”

Clarke raised her eyebrows, and waggled her fingers again. “Cough up.”

His jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious. You’re a rank amateur and I’m doing this as a favor to you.”

“It’s for charity,” she said, and leaned forward. She did NOT do a shimmy, but he shook his head anyway and reached for his wallet. Clarke could almost swear she saw his ears darken. Was he blushing?

He slapped five bucks into her still open hand, looking into her eyes, as if he couldn’t let his drop any lower. 

“Mercenary,” he said.

“Damn right. My mama didn’t raise no fool.”

“Lay the cards Madam Griffin.” He eyes were dark and piercing and it was her turn to drop her head. She breathed out and started shuffling the cards.

“You gonna stall all night? We’re on a time table here.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “No I got it.” She cut the cards into three piles and set them between them on the table. “Focus on a question, and then pick one pile,” she said.

He closed his eyes and she watched him for a minute. The way his high cheekbones caught the light, the way his eyelashes cast shadows amongst his freckles. It made her a little sad. She was kind of silly for him, but he didn’t look at her that way. 

Then he sighed, shook his head slightly and opened his eyes. He grinned and tapped the center one. She moved the others to the side and picked it up, turning the first card over and setting it down. “Past,” she said. “Six of swords, reversed.” It was the picture of a man rowing a boat, with the swords stuck into it. The water behind was rough. The water ahead was smooth. He’d been through so much lately, she thought. She always wanted to help him through it, but they didn’t have that kind of relationship. He was always stoic and she was his little sister’s roommate. But when his girlfriend had dumped him and then his job had blown up in his face with his principal giving his class that he’d slaved over to someone else? 

She shook her head almost as if to clear her thoughts. Now she regretted this. She knew too much about him to be objective and read what the cards said. She wanted too much.

She threw down the next two cards in quick succession, without stopping to think about what they meant. “Present and future,” she said. The Lovers. The Star.

Then she stopped and swallowed. Her heart started beating fast and it wasn’t supposed to do that. That was her. Right there in the cards. She saw herself. She was in his reading. She was The Star, blonde hair, naked, at the water’s edge, full of hope and ready. Meant to be. She felt her cheeks heat up and she reached for her pint. She gulped at her beer. That wasn’t right. It wasn’t her. It couldn’t be. She was putting herself into his reading because of her stupid crush. She swallowed heavily because she couldn’t quite seem to make her throat work. It couldn’t be her. She started chewing on her lip, trying to force some stupid tears that wanted to leak out from falling.

Clarke leaned forward, bracing her arms on either side of the cards and stared hard at them, for she didn’t know how long.

“Go ahead,” Bellamy prompted. “Tell me what’s going on. You can do it. Don’t be nervous, it’s just me.”

She glanced up at him. He was so damn encouraging. Thinking she was getting stage fright or something. It almost pissed her off. “That’s not it. Look, see? This? This six of swords reversed? This means you’ve been through a hard time lately, but it’s reversed. You’re ready to move on.”

He laughed, just a little. “Well that’s true, isn’t it. Finally.”

“I’m reading the cards, Bellamy,” she said, trying to focus on the cards. Just the cards. Not his face, not the way he crashed on their couch for weeks after Gina, too dispirited to even make fun of her. Not the way he’d rail at his weak principal who was always afraid to stick with something that was working just because there was struggle. He was frustrated with teaching and thinking of giving it up. But he’d talked to her about it, and the lame crush she’d always had on her friend’s brother had grown and taken over her life and now she wanted him back, talking to her again. But he’d gotten over the heart break and stood up to his principal and the year started over and he was all better. But she remembered. She looked up at him again and remembered how they’d talked. “It’s in the cards.”

“That it is,” he grinned and sat back, stretching his arms across the back of the booth and it did wonderful things to his shoulders and his chest muscles under his shirt. Of course he’d refused to do as Octavia asked and wore no Halloween costume, just his favorite, old t shirt, with “Brooklyn” splashed across it, so soft the black probably counted more as gray. He was watching her. “Continue,” he said, and gestured royally with his resting hand.

“Ass,” Clarke said, but she smiled and returned to the cards.

“Of course, I’m your practice. Gotta prepare you for whatever nightmare clown comes up to you thinking you’re a game.”

“If you’re trying to prepare me for nightmare clowns thinking I’m a game, shouldn’t you be ogling my boobs?”

He swallowed so she could see it. “Uhm… no.”

She didn’t know what got into her. She leaned forward and did the little shimmy just like Octavia had teased her about, pushing her breasts together with her arms.

His eyes darted down and he grit his jaw and looked away. “Read the cards, Clarke,” he said, his voice darker and firmer than she’d heard him talk to her in a long time. 

She ducked her head and grinned. Pleased. She DID have an effect on him. He wasn’t nearly as unassailable as he pretended. It made her feel stronger some how and she turned back to the cards.

The teasing, was it flirting even? Had gotten her confidence back.

“All right, back to the cards, so this one says you’ve had a rough time in the past and are ready to move on to the present… The Lovers… Uhm…You’re ready for someone new after having your heart broken,” she said, her heart beating fast again because she had forgotten for a moment in the teasing what she’d seen and she was almost afraid to to get to the next card. “You’re ready for romance. And it’s good. See? The future card? This is The Star,” she touched it briefly with a finger that she’d manicured with the darkest red shade she could fine, almost black. “It means fortune. Hope. You’re going to have good luck with all the ladies, Bellamy Blake.”

She looked up at Bellamy then, grinning, glad she’d gotten through the five dollar reading. Rushing through that part about love because she wanted it to be her. But this was just a fake tarot reading and it was just a crush and he didn’t feel that way about her. 

But he was staring back at her, his normally rich chocolate colored eyes now swimmingly dark. His hands on the back of the booth were clenched into fists.

“That’s not what it says, Clarke. You’re rushing it and you’re not saying what you really see. You’re saying what you think you should say. It doesn’t say anything about ladies. And you know it. Read it again.”

She suddenly couldn’t breathe. Teasing gone. She couldn’t look at him. 

“Uhm,” she said, “you’ve been through tough times—“

“Yeah, we covered that,” he interrupted.

“And you’re looking for a… real relationship. A partnership. You’re ready for someone new. ”

He raised his eyebrows. “Not really new, but okay. Read the last one again. The one that you said was “good luck with all the ladies.” There’s no ladies there. There’s only one lady in that card, isn’t there? Tell me what you really see.”

“The St-star,” she stuttered.

“Uh huh, keep going.”

“It’s like, your hope. Your fate. Your… true north. You’re not looking for luck among the ladies. You’re looking for your—“ she suddenly couldn’t finish. He took her hand in his. She looked up. She could lose herself in his eyes.

“Say it.”

“True love.” The words fell out of her mouth. She didn’t mean to say them. 

He stared at her. She stared at him. She could see his chest rising and falling with his breath, as if he was having trouble catching it. He was blinking at her. “You see who she is.” His fingers we warm around hers but he didn’t hold her tight. 

Clarke tore her eyes away from his. “It doesn’t work like that, Bellamy. It’s just a game. I’m not— I can’t…”

“Yeah you can, I saw your face when you put down that card. You know who I’m looking for.” He waited for her to say something, as if he knew, as if he wanted her to say it was her. She couldn’t. “Clarke…” he said, like he was begging for something.

“You ready Clarke?” Octavia came up. Clarke pulled her hand out of Bellamy’s and he let her. “You want to take your place on the other side of the bar at the tarot station? All the other booths are set up and I’m going to start the announcements.”

Clarke looked up at her. It was much easier to look at the fake glitz and gold of the Cleopatra costume than Bellamy. She knew he was starting at her. She busily swept all her cards up and tucked them back in the silk wrapping, stuffing it into her pouch and turning away. Octavia was already heading back to the other side of the bar.

“You can do it, you know,” Bellamy said. “You just have to trust yourself.”

Clarke couldn’t help turning back. “Yeah?” she asked and it felt shy. It felt new.

He smiled, kind of sadly. “Yeah. You have the gift, you just have to trust yourself. Go with your intuition. And don’t doubt yourself.”

She smiled and ducked her head, letting her hair fall over her face. “Thanks.”

“Anything,” he said. And he sounded like he meant it. 

“Come ON already!” Octavia said impatiently and yanked her away from Bellamy. I know you can’t stop staring at her boobs, Bellamy, but stop monopolizing my star attraction.”

He rolled his eyes at Octavia, but said “good luck” to Clarke, and then she was across the bar with Octavia.

“Does your brother know how to read tarot cards, Octavia?”

“Oh yeah. Our grandmother used to do it. He’s been reading since he was 18. He doesn’t talk about it much.”

“Well why are you having me do this and not him? He actually knows what he’s doing.” She felt somewhat betrayed. Tricked. Bellamy was the expert and he’d been, what, when he said she could read for him? Testing her? But then she remembered his soft voice and encouragement, and dammit, he’d been so supportive. He’d seen that she saw something.

She laughed. “Are you kidding? He wasn’t going to let me make him into a circus act and force him into a vest to show off his arms to draw in the donors. He said it was because it was too crowded and busy and too hard to focus, but he was going to do it until I showed him the outfit.”

“So you just thought you’d stuff me into a corset and show off my boobs.” Bellamy had been flustered by her boobs and she felt herself heat up from the memory. Maybe this bad plan of Octavia’s wasn’t so bad. 

“Now you’ve got it.” She said and virtually shoved her into the seat she’d prepared. She had dressed up a booth with candles and draperies and crystals. Overkill. But there was also their friend Harper sitting there as her first client, five bucks on the tablecloth. So Clarke sat down and began, doing like Bellamy said and trusting her instinct. 

At first it was hard to focus, and she was glad that it was Harper, but she remembered Bellamy’s advice, and Harper seemed to have fun, and then it was all her friends, Maya, Monty, Jasper, Miller, even the sharp tongued Murphy. By then, Clarke realized that Octavia was easing her into this with her progressively more snarky friends, and she’d even managed to silence Murphy with the sudden insight that in order to truly have a sense of belonging, he had to realize that his mother was the one who was bad, not him. She swore there was a tear in his eye when Octavia led him away. She watched him flop down into the booth with a surprised Bellamy, whose eyes she’d felt on her all night, but she was trying to ignore.

This time, his attention was on Murphy. He poured him a glass of beer from his pitcher and slid it across to him. Clarke could see them talking, but not hear. She felt bad all of a sudden. She’d made him upset with her reading. She could see it in the way he hung his head.

But then Bellamy looked up and right at her. He smiled and winked and then nodded at her. Before she could process that, Octavia was sliding her next client into the booth. It was a girl she’d never seen before, dressed as a black cat who had a hard time not staring at Clarke’s cleavage, but she was happy to hear about school and what she should study, so Clarke was happy to give her a shimmy and a lean, and the girl thanked her and left her an extra five dollars for charity. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

When she looked up before her next client, Bellamy was smiling at her. And every time she had a break between clients, she noticed Bellamy staring. Somehow her nerves didn’t interfere with her reading and she made it through the night, making significantly more in tips than she’d thought she would and handing it all over to Octavia for her charity. 

“Wow, great job, Clarke,” Octavia said as she put the money in her strong box.

“You up to one more reading, Clarke?” Bellamy said coming up behind his sister. 

Octavia spun on him. “Aren’t you getting greedy, Bell?” she asked.

“It’s a follow up question, about what she told me before.”

His hair was even wilder than it had been when she’d come in. She wondered how many times he’d run his fingers through it while she was busy that night. It made her heart skip a beat.

“Pay up, then, big brother,” she said and held her hand out, a sly glint in her eye. 

He shook his head at her but slid a five into her palm.

“Follow up questions are only two dollars, Bellamy,” Clarke said, thinking in passing that her voice was entirely too breathy for the circumstance, dressed like a fortune teller in the middle of a drunk bar on halloween night. 

“It’s for charity, Clarke,” he said, and slid into the booth across from her. “And I’m closing you out for the night.”

“Oh,” she said, and was quite sure that the word was barely audible. But Octavia caught it and gave her back a satisfied grin. “You’re done here for the night. Good job bringing in the donations. Your readings were all anyone could talk about and they all went for booze right after. Excellent. Bell, I’m putting you in charge of getting her home.”

“You got it,” he said to Octavia, his eyes never leaving Clarke’s face. Clarke knew Octavia left, but she didn’t watch her go. Bellamy was done smiling. She couldn’t look away.

“So that follow up question?” she asked him.

“My true north girl.” He said, without preamble, as if he had been thinking about it all night. “Is she interested.”

“’She,’ Bellamy?” She couldn’t help it. Her night telling truths off of the top of her head was affecting her. 

He swallowed, looked so serious. “You. Are you interested?”

“Is this real, Bellamy?” she was confused. Her heart was so full right now but she’d been watching him all these months just sure he saw her as nothing by his sister’s friend.

“According to the cards, it is.” He reached across the table and took her hand. His thumb stroking her knuckles. “I was asking about you, Clarke. That was my question.” 

Clarke’s eyes fluttered closed as his soft touch undid her. “I don’t need to pull a card, Bellamy. The answer is yes.”

In a second, he’d come around the table and was sitting next to her. “Really?”

His brown eyes were warm and sweet looking down on her. “Yeah. I really like you. I didn’t think you…”

“I do.”

“Oh,” she said, and this time she was sure the word was barely audible. He reached a finger up and brushed it over her lower lip.

“Oh?”

“Oh yeah,” she sighed and leaned in to kiss him. His arm wrapped around her and she knew suddenly, without knowing how she knew, that they had always been inevitable.


End file.
